WEC: Silverstone win to Porsche, Audi excluded

By Gary Watkins | April 17, 2016 11:35 PM ET

Audi has lost its victory in Sunday’s opening round of the World Endurance Championship at Silverstone to a technical infringement.

The #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler has been excluded under article 3.5.6 a3 of the LMP1 rulebook, which concerns post-race measurement of the underfloor plank. The front skid block was found at post-race scrutineering to be worn by more than the 5mm permitted by the regulations.

Audi Sport Team Joest was granted a hearing by the race stewards at which it offered an explanation of the excessive wear. This was rejected by the officials who deemed, according to a stewards’ statement, that “it is the liability of the competitor to respect the technical regulations in any case in order [that] the car complies with this regulation.”

No appeal has been made by Audi.

The exclusion means that the second-placed Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb has been declared the race winner.

The Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi now moves up to second, while the privateer LMP1 Rebellion-AER R-One shared by Alexandre Imperatori, Matheo Tuscher and Dominik Kraihamer takes the final podium spot.

REVISED RESULT – 194 LAPS:

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	6h01m53.028s
2	LMP1	S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	1 Lap
3	LMP1	M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	11 Laps
4	LMP1	N.Prost, N.Piquet Jr., N.Heidfeld	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	13 Laps
5	LMP2	R.Gonzalez, F.Albuquerque, B.Senna	RGR Sport by Morand	Ligier/Nissan	15 Laps
6	LMP2	R.Dalziel, L.Derani, C.Cumming	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	15 Laps
7	LMP2	R.Rusinov, N.Berthon, R.Rast	G-Drive Racing	ORECA/Nissan	15 Laps
8	LMP2	G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	16 Laps
9	LMP2	N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane	Strakka Racing	Gibson/Nissan	17 Laps
10	LMP2	M.Rao, R.Bradley, R.Merhi	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	17 Laps
11	LMP2	D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, N.Panciatici	Baxi DC Racing Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	18 Laps
12	LMP2	V.Petrov, K.Ladygin, V.Shaytar	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	18 Laps
13	LMP2	S.Sharp, E.Brown, J.van Overbeek	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	19 Laps
14	LMP1	S.Trummer, O.Webb, J.Rossiter	ByKOLLES Racing Team	CLM/AER	22 Laps
15	LMP2	N.Minassian, M.Mediani	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	23 Laps
16	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	24 Laps
17	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, S.Bird	AF Corse	Ferrari	27 Laps
18	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	28 Laps
19	GTE Pro	N.Thiim, M.Sorensen, D.Turner	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	28 Laps
20	GTE Pro	M.Franchitti, A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	29 Laps
21	GTE Pro	B.Johnson, S.Mucke, O.Pla	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	29 Laps
22	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	31 Laps
23	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	32 Laps
24	GTE Am	Y.Yamagishi, P.Ragues, P.Ruberti	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	33 Laps
25	GTE Pro	R.Lietz, M.Christensen	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche	40 Laps
26	GTE Am	C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias	KCMG	Porsche	40 Laps
27	GTE Am	K.Al Qubaisi, D.Hansson, K.Bachler	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	41 Laps
–	LMP1	M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	Disqualified
–	GTE Pro	R.Stanaway, F.Rees	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	Retirement
–	LMP2	T.Graves, W.Stevens, J.Jakes	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	Retirement
–	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	Retirement
–	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	Retirement
–	GTE Am	M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker	Gulf Racing	Porsche	Retirement